


Legacy

by deathwailart



Series: Aedan Cousland [5]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Family, Headcanon, Parent-Child Relationship, legacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 17:51:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1992165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a lot to live up to for the future heir to Ferelden's throne and Aedan only hopes that his child's life will be nowhere near as tumultuous as his own.</p><p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: legacy</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legacy

Living a life where family and duty, all bound up with honour, is practically bred into anyone with the name Cousland, Aedan is sure. Centuries of proud men and women doing what is good and right for their people, never losing sight of the fact that ruling is a privilege and not a right. He's seen what happens when people lose sight of that. It doesn't matter that he's seen worse since joining the Wardens and fighting the Blight and in the first months of ruling Amaranthine and dealing with the Mother, he'll never forget seeing Oriana and Oren's bodies lying in a heap, two innocents, the little boy he taught how to fight with wooden swords, the sister-in-law who used to shake her head and laugh at his antics.  
  
Rendon Howe forgot himself and his duties, blinded by greed and ambition and Ferelden suffered for it. His family dead all save himself and later Fergus but Aedan isn't sure if it's selfish for him to be glad he's not alone. Fergus lost so much more than he did. Fergus wasn't there to see it though but it's not something they talk about. How can he say that he saw the bodies of their family lying there and could do nothing. They probably weren't even given a proper burial. Father dying on the floor and he couldn't convince mother to leave, left her behind too where all he can honestly hope for is that her death was quick and that she didn't have to suffer.  
  
He rolls over in the dark and carefully rests his hand over the swell of Anora's belly.  
  
A child he can shape – he has a child in this world already but he knows better than to think he has a true claim to him. That child is Morrigan's and he misses her but he has a responsibility here and loves Anora, loves the life they have, the world they can create together. She said not to follow him and he respects that and can only pray to the Maker and Andraste that somewhere they're both safe from whatever might be after them. Honestly he's terrified about this. That he won't be able to be the sort of father his child deserves or that there's going to be an overwhelming burden on this child's shoulders; a child of the Cousland line who might grow to inherit the teyrnir unless Fergus remarries and has more children. The grandson of Loghain Mac Tir who helped to free Ferelden and sit a Theirin king upon the throne. To live up to Anora who has been guiding Ferelden into a golden age and who never seems to lose her composure, the sort of velvet over steel leadership Aedan can't hope to emulate. Then there's Aedan himself. Grey Warden, Hero of the Fifth Blight, Warden-Commander of Ferelden and Arl of Amaranthine. The man who spared Loghain who had allowed Maric to die on the field and had plunged Ferelden into civil war.  
  
The man who saw the end of the Theirin bloodline when he stood beside Anora and pledged to marry her and rule, sparing Loghain and executing Alistair to secure a calm future.  
  
"Maker watch over you pup," he whispers, "let your chapter be the peaceful and the calm."


End file.
